Stateless (UK indie electronic band)

Stateless was an English electronic band based in Leeds and London. The group most recently comprised Chris James (vocals, keyboards, guitars), kidkanevil (turntables, sampling, programming), Justin Percival (bass guitar, vocals) and David Levin (drums). Founded in 2002, Stateless signed a recording contract with Sony Music and released their first single "Down Here" in 2004 and a four-track EP The Bloodstream EP was released on Regal Recordings in 2005. In 2006, Stateless changed in line-up and signed with !K7 Records. A single, "Exit", was released in 2007, followed by their self-titled debut album Stateless. Two other singles were later released: "Prism No. 1" and "Bloodstream". The group toured throughout the UK and Europe in 2007 and 2008, playing both live concerts and acoustic showcases, promoting the album, and debuting material for their second album. In 2008, "Window 23/The Great White Whale" was released as an online single. In 2010, the band signed with independent label Ninja Tune, on which their eleven-track second album Matilda was released on 21 February, 2011. The album included two pre-released singles: "Ariel" from 22 November, 2010 and "Assassinations" released on 14 February 2011. On 19 September 2011, another EP, I'm On Fire, was released with the original version featuring Shara Worden and including remixes from Blue Daisy and Slugabed, a new song called "Blue Fire" featuring Amenta, and a string-quartet version of "Bloodstream". Stateless has been inactive since releasing the crowdfunded EP Sixfold Symmetry in 2015. Stateless met in Leeds in 2002. Chris James, James Sturdy, and Jon Taylor had played in rock bands together for several years. When realising this more traditional style did not offer them the musical challenge they were looking for, they began to expand their musical tastes and influences to more sample based electronica and hip hop. For a while they ruled out the use of guitars when writing, trying to take their sound into a new direction. The interest in hip hop brought in DJ kidkanevil, who they heard at a hip hop club night in Leeds. James met Rod Buchanan-Dunlop, a Scot, at Leeds Metropolitan University on the first day of their Creative Music and Sound Technology course in the Leeds Met School of Technology. Buchanan-Dunlop then came into the band as the programmer and Stateless became a five-piece. In February 2003 they released their first demo including demo versions of the songs "Exit" and "Prism No. 1", which they recorded at Leeds Met School of Technology studio. They sent in the demo to BBC Radio 1's show OneMusic early in 2003. Two months after the demo went online, "Exit" was played on Colin Murray’s evening show, as part of "Famous For Fifteen Seconds". Receiving high online vote ratings for their songs, OneMusic users voted them in the top ten on Steve Lamacq's demo section. "Prism No. 1" eventually made it to One Music's July "Unsigned list" as 1 of 6 bands selected nationwide and was voted to Radio 1 Playlist's C-List for a further two weeks. This earned the band interest from several management companies, independent and major labels including Virgin subsidiary Radiate and Sony Music. They teamed up with manager Martin Hall of Sanctuary Artist Management (Groove Armada, Manic Street Preachers) and in 2004 they signed with Sony Music for a five-album record deal. They recorded for six weeks with producer Jim Abbiss (Kasabian, Arctic Monkeys) at the renowned Rockfield Studios in Monmouth. Their debut single "Down Here" was released on 3 April 2004 as a limited edition CD single and 7" vinyl, with 1,000 of each format made available. The single was backed with a live studio session recording of "Horizon" as B-side and a promotional music video was published coinciding the release. A new version of "Prism No. 1" was made available as a free download from the band's website. Further in 2004 they played among others at Homelands festival, the New Bands stage at V Festival and supported Kosheen on their UK tour. The demo version of the song "Exit" was included in the soundtrack for the video game Driv3r (2004) and its standalone album release. When Sony merged with BMG, their contract with the Sony Music label terminated. Stateless lost their record deal but James stated in 2007 it "wasn’t much of a blow to us, it was a bit of a relief." A compilation called The Studio Sessions with live and unmixed studio versions of the songs "Down Here", "Horizon" and "Running Out", recorded between November 2003 and March 2004, was made available as a free download on the bands' official website, alongside a video directed by kidkanevil. In April 2005, Stateless raised £1280 for Amnesty International by organising a live music event, held on 30 April at Leeds Metropolitan Students' Union, a night jointly organised by Stateless and the Events Department at Leeds Metropolitan University. Leeds Met provided the venue and promotional material free of charge so that the full £5 ticket price could be donated to Amnesty. On 25 July 2005 Stateless released The Bloodstream EP as a 10" EP and CD on Regal, a subsidiary of Parlophone (EMI). The EP contains four songs, including a reworked version of "Exit". While recording with Stateless, Abbiss was also working with American DJ Shadow on an Unkle album. He passed several Stateless tracks on to Shadow who became a fan, stating their EP was "As close to perfection as I've heard in a long time". Several months later, Shadow invited vocalist James in June 2005 to co-write and sing songs for his new album. Shadow met James in London, gave him three demos and a week to write as much as he could, lyrically, and met him at the end of that week in the studio. The collaboration resulted in the songs "Erase You" and "You Made It" that were featured on DJ Shadow's 2006 album The Outsider. James joined him as guest vocalist on his 2006 world tour to perform the songs live, playing 90 live shows in 17 countries. In November 2006 Stateless played 14 shows as Shadow's support act on his UK tour, after they were joined by David Levin (drums) and Justin Percival (bass guitar, backing vocals) in early 2006 when James Sturdy (drums, piano, string arrangements) and Jon Taylor (bass guitar, keyboards, guitar) parted with the band. James had already been mates with Levin and Percival for years, since they were about 13 years old and played together in various rock, metal, funk and soul bands when they were at high school. Stateless signed a new record deal with Berlin-based electronica label !K7 Records in November 2006. Single "Exit" was released as a 7" single 14 May 2007, backed with b-side "Hurricane". Their self-titled debut album Stateless was released worldwide on CD on 16 July 2007. Two thirds of the album was recorded and co-produced with Jim Abiss and includes all tracks previously released on The Bloodstream EP and debut-single "Down Here". They recorded and produced the final third of the album themselves; half of the record eventually being recorded at Rockfield Studios and half at their home studio in Leeds. Further in July they released the single "Prism No. 1" as a CD single with b-side "Lose Myself", a track exclusive to this release, and as a 12" with remixes from Prince Language and a rework from kidkanevil as "Prism No. 2". The "Prism No. 1" music video was nominated on mtvU's "The Freshmen". Third and final single taken from the album "Bloodstream" was released 29 October 2007 again as a 12" with remixes, this time from Henrik Schwarz and Pilooski, and as CD single holding the same remixes. To coincide with the single's release, a promotional music video was released as well. The album has been receiving airplay on BBC Radio 1 and BBC 6 Music with the former's Zane Lowe playing singles "Bloodstream", "Prism No. 1" and album track "This Language". The latter featuring a contribution from American hip hop artist Lateef the Truthspeaker. The Artwork for both the album and its